Waylander 3 – Hero in the Shadows By David Gemmell

‘You have been asleep for hours,’ said Kysumu wearily. The little Rajnee rose and padded away from the cave. Yu Yu pushed himself to his knees and groaned again. Glancing down, he saw the fresh stitches in the new wound to his shoulder. ‘Every time I fight I get hurt,’ he said, though Kysumu was nowhere in sight. ‘Every time. And when a great hero takes over my body he gets hurt. I’m tired of my body getting hurt. Once we find the Men of Clay I’m going home. I’m going to dig ditches.’ He thought about it for a moment, remembering the threat to his life. ‘No, first I’m going to sneak into Shi Da’s house and cut his throat. Then I’ll dig ditches.’

‘You are talking to yourself,’ said Kysumu, returning to the cave with a double handful of dark berries. He offered them to Yu Yu, who sat down and ate gratefully. They did no more than dent the edge of his appetite.

‘Qin Chong came to me,’ said Kysumu.

‘I know. I was there. Here. Whatever! He was very complimentary about my strength and speed. We fought well, hey? Cut his bastard head off.’

‘You fought well,’ agreed Kysumu. ‘But now there are six more Kriaz-nor closing in on us.’

‘Six? That’s a lot,’ said Yu Yu. ‘Don’t know if I could kill six.’

‘Yow couldn’t kill one,’ said Kysumu, an edge of irritation in his voice.

‘I know why you are angry. Qin Chong wouldn’t tell you why you weren’t the pria-shath.’

Kysumu sighed. ‘You are correct, Yu Yu. All my life I have struggled to be the perfect Rajnee, to be worthy of the name, and to uphold the standards set by men like Qin Chong. I could have been rich, the owner of a palace, the lord of a province. I could have wed the Star Lily.’

‘The Star Lily?’ queried Yu Yu.

‘It is not important. I have eschewed all riches and remained a humble swordsman. What more could I have done to be worthy?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Yu Yu. ‘I haven’t done any of these things. But, then, I didn’t want to be the pria-shath.’ He wandered out of the cave, seeking more berries and finding a bush some sixty paces away. They were not quite ripe, but they tasted heavenly. Yu Yu had no idea why Kysumu longed to be the pria-shath. What was so great about being hunted and hungry, with killers on your trail? As far as Yu Yu was concerned he wished Kysumu had been the pria-shath. Having stripped the bush Yu Yu turned – and stopped in his tracks. The cave was set into the side of a domed hill. Yu Yu stared at it, remembering his spirit journeys with Qin Chong. As fast as his bruised limbs would carry him he hurried back to the cave. ‘We are here,’ he told Kysumu. ‘This is it! This is the hill of the Men of Clay.’

‘You are sure?’

‘Certain.’

The two men moved to the open air, scanning the hillside. ‘How do we enter?’ asked Kysumu.

‘I don’t know.’

Slowly they traversed the base. No trees grew upon the hillside, and there were no openings of any kind, save for the cave in which they had rested. Kysumu climbed to the top, scanning the surrounding ground. Then he returned to where Yu Yu waited.

‘I can see no sign of an entrance,’ said Kysumu.

They walked back to the cave and Kysumu began to examine the grey walls. They were seamless. Yu Yu waited outside. He, too, was mystified. In his dream he had seen the Riaj-nor walking to this hillside and vanishing inside. He did not recall there being a cave, nor indeed an overhang like the one above, jutting from the hillside like a lean-to roof.

He walked back to the berry bush and stared at the overhang and the land below it. He had been a ditch-digger and a builder for most of his adult life, and he knew a little about the movement of soil. It seemed to him then that the area around the cave mouth could have eroded, exposing the cave. Kysumu joined him. ‘I can find nothing,’ he said.